Going Home
by zoubibi
Summary: The murderer’s on the phone... or is he?


**Disclaimer : **None of mine, they're all Hal McElroy's (lucky him).

**Author's note : **Right this is my first fanfic ever. I guess everything has to start somewhere.  
I know the show has ended for some time but Belgian television screened it last year (then it got replaced by early Stingers...) so I got into after everyone else but anyway...  
English ismy second language so there might be some mistakes, I just hope there aren't to many.  
This fichad beenhanging round my head for a while so I typed it down. Hope you appreciate it (let me know).

**Summary :** The murderer's on the phone... or is he?

**Going home**

"We need to take a break" those were Jack's own words after Rachel had got out of the hospital. She had been badly wounded and on the edge of dying for a few days.  
This sort of event either got couples closer or had them fall apart. Apparently the second choice was Jack's.  
Somehow Rachel had been expecting it, somehow she knew that mixing private and professional life couldn't last long. Besides she knew how he had felt during her time at the hospital and she knew she would probably have ended up with the same conclusion.

Today she'd have to face him for the first time since they had decided to break up "only for a little time". She didn't know how it would go and she had a lot of apprehension pushing the door opened. She greeted Helen and walked straight to her office. There was no use in delaying the bad time... or would it be that bad?

She walked in the D's office. Neither of the boys were there and she felt somewhat frustrated about it. She only had sit down for a minute when Jeff walked in and asked her to follow him in his office. She hated that, but she knew Hawker had good intentions, she had experienced it before.

"First of all, welcome back Rachel, I hope you had a nice recovery," said he.  
"Thanks Jeff"  
"Well we have a couple of things to work out, so better do it quickly so that you may get back into proper work as soon as possible"  
Rachel sat in the chair opposite to Jeff's and look at him straight in the eyes, if he had any doubt on her health or determination she had to get rid of them straight away.  
"Docs have said you were up and running again and I believe you are, however before I leave you to it I need to know : have you anything to say about what happened or what can happen in the course of duty?"  
"Nope, save that I'm more than wanting to get back to it."  
"Did you talk to David?"  
"Yes, we had fantastic holidays and he's supporting me"  
"Good, then open your ears, here's the brief"

Jeff got up and went for a file on the shelf, he gave it to Rachel and went to the window.

"Last week a body was found in the harbour. No papers and nothing to help us identifying the guy, as for now we still ignore everything about him.  
Jack and Mick just went to the tourism office to see if there is any tourist missing.  
We've had the divers on the scene and nothing was found, the only thing we're sure of is that he hasn't drowned, someone killed him, hitting him hard on the head and threw him into the water."  
"Okay so we have a mister-no-one at the morgue and a murderer somewhere in Sydney, have you checked with video surveillance around the beaches and harbour ?"  
"We have and that led nowhere... Rachel you should know this. We haven't actually found the body..."  
"Oh no what did you do then, the guy called you to tell you he was dead !"  
"You're not going to believe this, but he has."  
Rachel almost laugh but as Jeff turned around she understood she'd better not... he was deadly serious. He went back to his chair.  
"At 10AM on Tuesday we had a call, no one on the line. Just a sound of water coming in and out.  
At first we didn't do anything but listening back to the tape Jack caught the sound of hasty pace. It seemed to run away from the phone. We decided to localise the call so with the help of some high chiefs we finally found the phone was still around Sydney and the Nemesis went on the scene. Believe it or not it was only yards away from this very harbour.  
When the Nemesis called back they had found the body and the phone still on hold since 10 in the morning."

Rachel had a hard time keeping all this in her head, did the drowned guy phone the cops before dying or...

"He hasn't drowned Rachel. He was dead before touching the water. There is only one explanation... the murderer called us."  
She couldn't believe it why would the murderer call?  
"Don't you think someone else called?" she asked.  
"And then let the body and phone floating away? No way"  
"Is he playing cat and mouse?"  
"Either that or he wanted us to find the body... which would be as disturbing as your explanation."  
"Even more !"

* * *

Aboard the Nemesis Gavin Sykes and Tommy Tavita were going round a ship that they had to inspect.

"So what d'ya figure? Asylum seekers? Coke?" asked Sykes  
"Nope, safety standards"  
"Oh come on, we're not supposed to do that !"  
"Yes we are Sykes and you better get going before they start the engines."

Sykes got on the ship closely followed by Johnson.

"Police inspection can you show us the engines please"  
A sailor led the way, the Captain of the ship joined them by the engines.  
"Something's wrong?" he asked  
"We don't know yet, we had a report incriminating your ship of water pollution" stated Johnson.  
"Nonsense !"

Moments later they were back on the deck.  
"Thank you, it's all safe. Sail away."

"I hate these things, they have people paid for that job, why are we the ones to do it?"  
"Stop complainin' Sykes, we were near them and they had to go, that's why we did it."

* * *

When she got back in her office, Rachel still had a hard time letting the pieces fall into place, this was gibberish !  
"Welcome back missus !" said Mick hurrying to offer her a cup of coffee. Jack was behind his desk and smiled gently at her.  
Rachel said hi and accepted the coffee then went to sit at her desk, surprised she actually felt good with Jack being there as a friend and nothing more.

"Hawker told you about the body?" said Mick.  
"He did, what with the phone?"  
"Well, it was a prepaid card... so no name" answered Jack.  
"Of course... did you try and call any of the numbers?"  
"There were none in the phone memory"  
"Oh this is good !" said Rachel sarcastically.

* * *

When Rachel got home that night, the investigation on the mysterious body was still at the starting point. Jack, Mick and Rachel had gone to several phone shops but that type of phone was very common and none of these shops had the serial number on their lists. The possibility that the poor devil might be from elsewhere was beginning to sink in. Though there was no way to be sure.  
She was still undecided as to what to eat when her phone went off.

"Goldstein"  
"Hey Goldie it's me," went Jack's voice on the phone, "I thought we oughta talk a bit... Fancy a nice supper at my place?"  
"Well that's nice of you but..."  
"I'm not gonna try and pick you up, I've already done that. Besides I haven't change my mind."  
"Well then I suppose I can't refuse"

She shut her phone and went to her car.  
While driving she wondered what Jack would say... he hadn't change his mind, then he certainly felt a similar way to Rachel's today.

"How're ya doin'?" said Jack opening the door.  
"Rather well thanks, you?"  
"Fine, c'm'on in."

As he closed the door Rachel found her way to his living room and sat on the couch.

"I'm not going to go round in circles... you know what you're here for. How did you feel today? Are you still able to work with me despite the..."  
"It was alright..."  
"Are you sure, because I know you'll never admit it if it's not? There's no shame Rachel and I'll do my best to help you in case you.."  
"It is all right Jack. I felt great and I did understand why you wanted this. Somehow I must've wanted it as well..."  
He smiled at her and with a nod said "That's good".  
They then sat at the table and had supper. Everything went well, they were friends and they were glad to be.

* * *

When Tommy got in the police station in the morning, something was troubling him.  
He knew Rachel had come back and he hadn't seen her yesterday so he went straight to the D's office and found them all in there.

"Welcome back Rach... I hope they're not on your back already"  
"They're killing me, thanks Tommy"  
Noticing the photo of a body hung on the wall Tommy walked over there... something was wrong about that picture.  
"Who is it?"  
"Don't know, we're working on it"

As he looked closely at the picture, Tommy had a flash.  
"I know what's wrong with him !"  
"Yeah he phoned us while he was dead"  
"What nonsense are you talking about? He's got biker pants but no jacket !"  
"Yeah I'm sure lots of them do that when they're off their bikes"  
"Maybe but I can tell you I saw the jacket that's going along with the pants yesterday"  
Mick jumped, he had noticed that before but hadn't thought about it since then "Where?"  
"We inspected a boat yesterday, some safety standard stuff and I saw that jacket floating half way under water... I didn't think about it that much until this morning.. why would a biker jacket be floating half way under water?"  
"Tell Terry and Dave to come along we're going to check that out !"

The Nemesis rushed to where it was the day before with the two divers, Mick, Jack and Tommy on board. Rachel had stayed at the office, explaining to Hawker they were checking a biker jacket floating half way under water witnessed the day before by Tommy. Somehow she didn't believe it herself.

As Dave dived, Mick noticed the black shape floating near the boat.  
When the jacket was brought back aboard Mick searched it and found ID, a driver's licence and a plane ticket. There were no doubt the man on the ID was definitely the body found the week before.

They all got back to the office and in the D's office, brainstorming was on its way.  
"So his name's Manuel Jones, half Australian-half Mexican... the plane ticket's from Brazil. Now what was he doing so bad that he was killed?" said Mick.  
"Million dollar question if you ask me" answered Jack.  
"Okay guys, first thing to do is to check what he did since his arrival in Australia.. where he was stayin', who he's been seein'... usual stuff. We better get going. Mick contact the Brazilian embassy and see if they have anything about Mr Jones. Jack and I are going to visit a few hotels."  
"Yeah.. have fun guys !"  
As Jack followed Goldie outside he looked at Mick with eyes that said "not this time".

* * *

Helen saw Jack and Rachel leaving the office together and went straight to Hawker's office... what she had read was too much of a shock for her to bear it alone. Besides Jeff was as concerned as she was... in fact the whole station was, but she wasn't sure yet. How could this be?

She knocked but when she entered Jeff was on the phone with some superior, looking staggered. She couldn't believe Jeff could actually be staggered.

* * *

"Thank you sir" Jack and Rachel were getting out of the sixth hotel they had visit in a couple of hours. Jack was phoning Mick to let him know.

"Mick, Jack here. We're going back to the station. We found the hotel... Yeah in Sydney... no it wasn't near the harbour, close to the Opera House... The embassy faxed you information? Great... We'll have a look at that as well. Mr Jones was anyway seeing someone everyday at 10PM. The housekeeper hasn't seen who it was... not once. He said he thought he had trouble with justice because the only time he saw his back and tried to talk to him the guy ran... yeah it was a guy. No crime of passion, sorry mate... Yeah see you at the station"  
"More news?" asked Rachel as Jack was pocketing his phone.  
"Yeah the embassy, some official news at last !"

As they got on the car Rachel began to feel lonely. She didn't know why. Then she noticed it.  
Jack was wearing a tie she had offered him. She was okay with Jack working with her everyday but that was a shock. She thought he'd never wear that again. Jack noticed Rachel's uneasiness and tried to lighten the mood.  
"How's Davy?"  
"Great. He's having a good time with his friends... you know them boy."  
"Oh yeah I certainly do !"  
Silence fell over the compartment again. Then Jack realised his mistake, but he knew he had to ask. He knew David loved him and he loved David ; he wanted to know.  
"How is he taking our... you know... little break?"  
"Good, he's always wanting to comfort me. He's more worried about me than himself. But he shouldn't, I'm okay."  
"Okay, tell him I said hi, will ya ?"  
"Sure."

* * *

"Rachel !" Helen heard her voice calling Rachel over, she didn't know why. Since she had been out of Jeff's office she didn't know what to do or what to believe.  
"Yeah what's up?"  
Helen felt the urge of telling her but she couldn't get the words right... she couldn't admit it. It didn't look fair on Rachel... and it certainly didn't look possible.  
"Already had something to eat?"  
She hadn't prepared anything, she wasn't even hungry but she had to say something otherwise Rachel would get suspicious.  
Rachel hadn't eaten yet but she had to check the embassy information. She almost said she wasn't hungry when she noticed Helen wasn't normal. Something was up. Maybe she needed to talk. She accepted the invitation and they both went to the dining room in silence.  
She quickly told Jack to go and eat something with Mick too and joined Helen at a table.

For five minutes nothing happened, they were eating in silence and Rachel began to feel uncomfortable when Helen suddenly spoke. She spoke with a troubled voice.  
"How is it going with Jack?"  
"Dead end"  
"Oh, sorry to hear it"  
"Me too... I s'pose"  
"How's the case doin'?"  
"Okay, we found some information on Mr-no-one : he's a South American-Australian guy named Manuel Jones."  
"Any motive?"  
"Nope.. there's just one curious guy, visiting him every night."  
"Yeah... Rach... oh leave it. I'm not feeling well."  
"I can certainly see that"  
"I'm sorry about your time... go back to work"  
"You sure?"  
"Yeah go on"  
"Okay, see you later then"

As Rachel left, Helen felt weak... she hated that feeling. She hated being only human.

* * *

When she saw the look on the boys' face Rachel forgot all about Helen's strange behaviour. There was something big... something really big.

"Yeah?"  
"This guy was a heroin dealer."  
"What was he doin' in Sydney?"  
"Probably bringing the drugs over"  
"What about the border inspection?"  
"Nothing... never been controlled, never found in possession of Heroin here. But he was watched by the drug squad from Melbourne."  
"Melbourne?"  
"Apparently he has just opened the market to Sydney."  
"So what do you reckon? The drugs bosses are in charge of this murder?"  
"Why? We have nothing about him being an informer"  
"Maybe he was just wanting too much money"  
"The guy visiting him could be the murderer..."  
"Yeah he had trouble with justice, remember what the guy at the hotel told you?"  
"Wait... if he was the murderer.. Why would he see him everyday during a month and then kill him?"  
"No idea, but we gotta find him".  
"Well you gotta find him guys, I have an appointment with David's teacher... bye!"

* * *

It was late, Mick had already gone home but something was on Jack's mind.  
He couldn't get that out. Every leads were heading to that only conclusion. He had to know and he had to know tonight.  
He had chatted with Hawker, and what he told him made this impossible but somehow... somehow this was the only explanation. He decided he'd be working late tonight and headed for the old hospital near Clontarf.  
He decided that he couldn't afford to be seen and did the last hundred yards by foot.  
He noticed a faint light glowing upstairs and went straight there. When he entered the room he wasn't surprised, he was relieved.  
"I knew it was you"

* * *

When he arrived at the station Jack was two hours late but he had had a busy night.

"Already there" greeted Rachel.  
"Don't say anything... you were the one leaving early yesterday"  
"And you were the one staying over for the night" stated Mick.  
"Found anything?"  
"No"

Rachel wasn't sure but she thought she had heard something... like a moment of hesitation in Jack's tone, but she quickly chased the thought of her mind. Why would Jack be lying?

* * *

Rachel, Mick and Jack were back into Jones' hotel. Searching his room for any lead.  
Rachel heard a faint noise emanating from Jack.

"Found anything?"  
"Nope" said Mick.  
"Nothing" answered Jack.  
But as he spoke Rachel was sure she'd seen him stuffing a piece of paper into his pocket.  
"No sign of Mister-10pm"  
"Nope"  
"Ah let's go back to the office."

When Rachel entered she saw Jeff waving at her. She went upstairs and into his office.  
"I've got bad news"  
Now, what a surprise. She didn't expect any good ones with the look he had on his face. Funnily enough it was the same look she had seen on Helen's face on the day before.  
"If it's bad news it's from the morgue?"  
"No, it's from Frank Holloway"

His name hang on the air like an old loved smell that comes back with sweet memories.  
She hadn't forgotten Frank, how could she?  
She knew she shouldn't have let him sail away. She hated herself for the thing she hadn't done about Frank.  
She missed him of course, she never admitted it to anyone, even hardly to herself. They had been more than a couple, they had been partners and a pretty good pair.  
Somewhere inside her stomach something twisted and that made her feel stupid, but she knew what it was.  
Jeff noticed it had come as a shock to Rachel, Holloway's name hadn't been pronounced in her presence for a very long time. Some people didn't even remember him according to the rumours. Rachel clearly remembered him.

"He... I know you're not going to believe this but... he was implicated in a drug case in Venezuela"  
Venezuela... Venezuela... He had made it. He had gone to Venezuela. Rachel felt happy and then something clicked...  
"What's happened?"  
"His boat blew off while the drug squad was trying to stop him as well as drug dealers"

* * *

"You okay Goldie?"  
She wasn't, Jack didn't need glasses to see it.  
"You knew"  
"Yes, but Goldie I couldn't tell you. Not with everything that's been going on."  
"He hasn't done that"  
"He was caught in the act"  
"He hasn't done that Mick"

She knew it was wrong to be hard on Mick but she couldn't believe it. Slowly the truth sank in. Frank was gone... he was gone, died in Venezuela with nothing left but the engines of his boat.  
She decided to go alone, driving around.

* * *

When she came back at noon, everything about Frank had left her mind. She was focused on the case. Probably to forget about Frank. But it worked anyway and she might have a solution.

"Okay our 10PM-visitor may not know he's dead."  
Jack and Mick were surprised by the look of determination in Rachel's eyes and didn't dare to say anything.  
"What d'ya reckon?"  
"Rachel we agreed he was the murderer." said Mick.  
"We didn't we said it was our only lead but it is highly improbable"  
"If he had come back the guy at the hotel would have told us."  
"Why?"  
"Because we asked him."  
"We did not"  
"I did" eventually said Jack.

Her theory was falling apart.  
"We thought we'd go to the place where the body was thrown on the water."  
"Okay" she agreed. Nothing was right today.

* * *

"Have you noticed that on the other side of the bay there's the old hospital?" said Mick.  
"Yeah, what about it?" replied Jack.  
Rachel had been silent since they had left the station.  
"Well... would be a nice hideaway?"  
"Don't be stupid, there's nothing to do with it"  
"Actually..."  
"I said it was stupid"

Rachel was still conscious enough to notice Jack's tone was nervous... or was it frightened?  
She knew the lead of the old hospital wasn't that stupid but she didn't want to go in there. The whole place reminded her of Frank, of the day she feared for his life while he was running around for a blackmail case.  
They headed back to the office in silence.

* * *

The night was falling but Rachel didn't feel like going home. She was doing paperwork instead, it had to be done one day anyway.  
For whatever reason Jack was still there as well. They weren't speaking, they both had too many things in their head.  
Finally he picked up his coat, looking concerned, said goodnight and closed the door.

Rachel wasn't watching him leaving but as she took a sip of her coffee she noticed him. He had a peculiar behaviour. Making sure nobody was following him. She remembered everything he'd said and done during the day. Something was definitely wrong with him. She shut down her computer and went to her car. She followed Jack through the deserted Sydney streets and out of the city.  
He pulled up near a beach she did the same a few yards away and followed him. They were both walking on the beach when Rachel noticed where they were heading.  
The old hospital... then she saw it. It was thin and at first she wouldn't have noticed it but now she was seeing it clearly. Light, upstairs.

Jack came in and Rachel followed. She had a hard time keeping her steps quiet.  
When she arrived at the top of the stairs she heard voices, one was Jack's and the other was...  
She ran, not caring about the noise, she had to run, she was going mad. She turned and skipped at the entrance of the lightened door. The two men were looking at her.  
Jack looked confused and had his weapon in hand. The other man lowered the gun, he looked tired and sorry, but he had a smile on his face. A smile she knew only too well.  
It was Frank's smile, it was Frank's body and it was Frank's voice. Goldie entered the room and slapped him on the face.  
Frank looked confused now but let Rachel spoke. Her words were "You promised you'd send a postcard !"  
Everybody laughed.

* * *

"One more sausage Rachel?" asked Jack.  
"No thanks"  
She was sited beside Frank and though she'd never admit it, she was desperately looking for his touch.  
"Well I got to Brisbane, then finally Venezuela. But there wasn't much to do there.  
Quickly enough the drug squad contacted me... I don't know how they found out I was a cop but they asked me for help on a big traffic heading to Sydney. So I did. I infiltrated the web and made a friend... I think you've met him" said Frank taking a mouthful of sausage.  
"That would be Mr Manuel Jones... thus he was an informer"  
"So to speak yeah... we had been engaged to bring the drug to Sydney but before I could warn them, the drug squad thought I had deceived them and they blew my boat off. I decided to go on with Manuel and we took the plane to Sydney, under false identity of course."

He looked at Rachel for a certain time, he felt a surge of memory and wanted to hold her tight but restrained himself.  
Rachel noticed he was looking at her and had something in his mind she sent him a look that said "don't even think about it", she regretted it immediately after as he got on with his story.

"When we got here and went to the meeting, there was nobody. We understood we had been exposed. Manuel was staying at the Opera hotel and I was at the Sir William Wallace. Three days after our arrival I was going to meet Manu on the beach when I heard a scream. When I arrived he was already dead. I didn't know what to do, then I thought that the only ones I could count on were you guys at the water police. After a white night of looking after Manuel's body and, I must admit, a little rest in the morning I phoned the station with Manuel's phone and threw him on the water. I knew that he would eventually sail to the station.  
Then you basically discovered the rest. Jack found me yesterday."  
"And tonight you followed me up to here"  
"You shouldn't've looked back" she said winking at him  
"Well yes anyway, I'll leave you guys, I've got to get some sleep tonight."

When Jack was away Frank spoke again  
"He explained me everything about the injury and the love affair."  
"Did he?"  
He nodded with a gentle smile.  
They spent the night exchanging memories and talking about their time away from each other.  
None of them wanted the morning to come but when it finally did they had a decision to make.

* * *

Helen almost fainted when she saw Rachel and the visitor coming in. How could it be.  
Jeff, who was having a look from his office rushed out and shouted "Holloway, in here, fast as you can !"  
Frank turned to Rachel with the look "same old Hawker" on his face.  
They both went in Hawker's office and Frank told the story again. Hawker believed it, he couldn't believe the official story anyway.  
Jeff then asked Jack and Mick to join them as well as some of the old ones that knew Frank.

Jeff had a plan to arrest the true murderer : Frank was the bait.

* * *

The rumour was quickly known in the whole harbour, the Venezuelan drug squad inspector had been found and he was about to embark the next boat to China.

Frank was walking on Circular Quay at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Waiting for the killers to take the bait.

At 3.30 nothing had happened when suddenly a guy came running down the quay and knocked Frank off. No one could see him anymore but none moved. Then they heard a shot. Rachel ran toward the place where Frank had fell, her heart pounding fiercely in her chest.  
She saw it, the guy was falling on Frank, full of blood. Frank got up looking relieved.  
He had shot the guy before he got him. Jack arrested the killer who was still breathing and took him to the hospital with Mick.

* * *

"He'll survive Frank, you're out of trouble mate. The Sydney drug squad took over the case. With your information they're going to arrest the whole cartel."  
"Drinks are on me" yelled Frank and everyone went down to the pub.  
A few beers later Frank sat next to Rachel, everyone was leaving.  
"Well I still don't know where to go for the night. I think I may still have a room at the Sir William Wallace though"  
"You could always stay at my place. David's only coming for the weekend"  
"D'ya reckon it would be right ?"  
"It'd certainly not be wrong."  
"Okay then" said Frank with a smile "Can I drive?"  
"No"  
"Oh come on... pleaaaaaase !"  
"Holloway, it's always been that way and it ain't gonna change because you've been on holiday!"

Rachel opened the door and showed Frank in.  
"So... what now?" said he as he sat on the couch.  
"Anything you want" replied Rachel with a smile. She sat next to him and for the first time since he'd come back let her tears run down her cheek, though she wasn't sure whether she was sad or happy.

It didn't take long for Frank to notice them and to feel the surge of drying them.

**The End**


End file.
